560 SAN DIEGO. CALIF.

mand, each with its own commanding officer. That organization remains in

effect today. Following World War II, NTC's population dropped, although the Service

School Command actually expanded as it continued to establish new courses to meet the specific needs of the fleet and to keep abreast of a burgeoning tech­nology . By the end of 1949 the population of the center had dropped to a 20 year low of 5,800 men. But six months later the advent of the Korean War ushered in another era of expansion. And by September 1950 the center was

again operating at near capacity . In fact, as the war progressed the Center's capacity was exceeded by the

demand for tr<lined personnel in the rapidly growing flect that had been virtually demolished after World War II. On 15 January 1951. to mcet this sudden surge , the Navy reactivated a World War II Marine Corps training eamp some ten miles north of San Diego, Camp Elliott, as the Elliott Annex of NTC. It was used for recruit training until March 1953, when it was returned to an inactive status. During its two-year operation more than 15,000 recruits went through boot camp

there. Partially as a result of this shortfall in training capacity in case of mobilization

and aging World War II barracks, the Navy began construction in April 1953 of a new recruit training camp on undeveloped land within the center. This recruit complex, known as Camp Nimitz, was completed in 1955.

Nicknamed "Cradle of the Navy, " NTC today encompasses 556.43 acres of land , including 5.82 acres leased from the San Diego Port Authority . In some 380 buildings, training ranges from basic recruit indoctrination to the most advanced skills and technology. Currently (1982). the center annually graduates approximately 30,000 recruits and an equal number of fleet personnel from

advanced courses.

BIBLIOGRAPHY A. " Command History , Naval Training Center, San Diego , Calif.. 1923," and sup­

plements (Washington: Naval Historical Center, Operational Archives Branch)~ B. Naval Trailling Center, Son Diego (San Diego: American Publishers , 19RO).

ROLAND A. BOWLING

San Diego, Calif., North Island Naval Air Station, 8 November 1917­

The Naval Air Station commissioned on 8 November 1917 was not thc first aviation activity nor the first military facility on North Island . Aviation history began there in January 1910 when a Curtiss pusher planc piloteli by Charles Hamilton on a flight from the adjacent Coronado Polo Grounds malic an cmcr­gency landing on the island . Subsequcntly Glenn Curtiss estahlished an aviation camp there. One of his first students, LI. Theodore G. Ellyson. lISN. IIllim<ltdy became Naval Avi(ltor Number I . Another first for th\' island alld {'lIrli~s was

SAN DIEGO. CALIF. 561

the first successful seaplane flight in the United States , made from the island in 1911.

Early in January 1912, naval Lieutenants Ellyson , John Towers. and Victor D . Herbster were at Curtiss's aviation camp on N0l1h Island. They were the entire flying Navy and had with them the whole flying fleet-a Curtiss A-I and A-2 and a Wright B-1. After about three months of living in tents and making and breaking aerial records, the pilots left for Annapolis, Md. (g.v .). The Navy did not return to North Island until 1917, when the need for aviation training bases for World War I became acute , and moved in with some Army officers who were training at an establishment known as Rockwell Field. (See Imperial Beach , Calif., Ream Field , U.S . Naval Air Station). In July 1917 Congress authorized the president to take possession of North Island, which was to be shared in joint tenancy by the Army and Navy until 1939. LI. Earl W. Spencer, USN, arrived on 8 November 1917 to establish and command a permanent air station for training pilots and mechanics in ground and flight schools. At first all hands stood guard duty and ate the same food. Air operations by military and Marine personnel began in January 1918. and growth was rapid and continued until the end of the war, when the station's future was made secure because it was directed to repair and service fleet squadrons.

Between 1919 and 1939 a series of memorable firsts took place on North Island; the first nonstop coast-to-coast flight terminated there in 1923 after twenty­six hours fifty minutes; the first successful inflight refueling occurred in 1923; the first successful night launch from a battleship , the USS California, took place in 1924; and the first night carrier landing. aboard the USS Langley, happened in 1925. In 1926 Secretary of the Navy Curtis D . Wilbur ordered that all USN Academy graduates be given twenty-five hours of flight instruction during their first year of sea duty at flight schools either at Norfolk or San Diego. But probably the most significant historical event that occurred in the early years of NAS North Island was its association with Charles A. Lindbergh's historic flight from New York to Paris in 1927. The first leg of that flight began on 10 May 1927 when Lindbergh took off from North Island for St. Louis.

Naval air activity at North Island increased as aircraft carriers arrived at its docks and dirigibles were added to its air fleet. During World War II and the Korean War, North Island was the primary naval airfield in the area for training and support of naval avi(ltion. and in 1955 its name was changed from NAS San Diego to NAS North Island. In 1961, when Miramar became the primary activity for fightcr squadrons and later airborne early warning squadrons, NAS North Island became primarily the field for ASW and several fleet support squadrons. and on 15 August 1963 it was granted official recognition as the " Birthplacc of Naval Aviation " by resolution of the House Armed Services (\ lI11mittcc .

A lkcade latn Secretary of Defensc Robert McNamara announced reductions dl'siglled 10 saw $3 .:1 hillion during the next ten years. In consequence , six

562 SAN DIEGO, CALIF.

Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadrons and RVAW-IO were transferred to Miramar.

Today, as in the past, NAS North Island supports several commands, such as Commander Naval Air Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet (COMNAVAIRPAC), Com­mander Antisubmarine Warfare Wing, U.S. Pacific Fleet (COMASWWING­PAC), and Deputy Commander Operational Test and Evaluation Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet. In addition, it provides berthing space for several aircraft carriers, cruisers, and deep-draft logistics support vessels. Since 1949 it has also been host to utility, ASW, gunnery, and minesweeping helicopter squadrons and their support facilities.

The largest tenant aboard NAS North Island is the Naval Air Rework Facility. one of the primary elements in a Tidewater Strategy complex . Over a span of six decades it has become the largest and most diversified of the six such Rework Facilities operated by the Navy. Specifically, the facility renders a wide range of aeronautical engineering services, such as repair design , specification control , failure analysis, and process development.

A unique activity also supported at North Island is the Submarine Rescue Unit (SRU), a unit under Commander Submarine Group ONE stationed at the Naval Submarine Base, San Diego. The mission of the SRU is to provide a wide range of services to the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicles (DSRV), Deep Submer­gence Vehicles (DSV), Unmanned Vehicles (UV). and the Submarine Personnel Rescue FIy-Away Kit. The latter consists of a Submarine Rescue Chamber and associated equipment for loadout on regular submarine rescue vessels (ASR) or fleet tugs (ATF). This kit and any of the other units. such as the DSRVs. can be airlifted to any location in the world.

No longer an "island," North Island has been firmly atiached to adjoining Coronado by landfill reclamation projects over the years since Glenn Curtiss first set up camp there and now covers 2,570 acres. Most air operations center around Halsey Field, which has two long runways and many taxifields . In addition, construction of the Coronado Bridge between Coronado and San Diego made San Diego and other commands in the area more accessible for mutual Support and coordination. Thus, today NAS North Island continues to play an ever greater role in the overall primary mission of the shore establishment in the area­maximum support to the Fleet.

BIBLIOGRAPHY A. "Command History. Naval Air Station, North Island. San Diego, Calif., 1923 ,"

and supplements (Washington: Naval Historical Center, Operational Archives). B. Helen F. Collins, "North Island ... The Birthplace," Naval Aviation News , Dec.

1977, pp. 30- 37; A.K. Warren. "The Way It Was ," Naval Aviation News, Sept. 1979. pp. 38- 39; NAS North Is/and: Service 10 the Fleet (San Diego: American Publishers . 1980).

ROLAND A. BOWLING

San Diego, Calif., Naval Supply Center. 4 Septcmbt'r 1')uI-

One of the largest supply fa l: ilitil's in 11Il' Navy. NS(' \0;;111 I)i Ct'11 lIa~ il~;

hcmlqllarkrs lll lL.l lIIain l'OIIlPil'X willi ill IIII' ·' Ihoa.!way ( " lIl1POlllld " 111111 II.In I

SAN DIEGO, CALIF. 563

by Pacific Highway, Harbor Drive, Broadway , and Market Streets in downtown San Diego. Annexes are maintained at National City. principally within the Naval Station; Point Loma Annex, where fuel and ammunition are stored; North Island Annex, within the Naval Air Station; and the Long Beach Detachment , within the Long Beach Naval Shipyard.

The distinction of being the first naval logistics support activity, as well as the oldest naval shore activity in the San Diego area , goes to a current subsidiary of the NSC, the Naval Supply Center Fuel Department, Point Loma Annex. On 4 September 1901 the War Department transferred to the Navy Department the northern 360 acres of the Point Loma Military Reservation for a coaling station. The Navy officially established the La Playa Coaling Station on the site in 1904.

The center itself had its beginning on 8 August 1922 when the Chief of Naval Operations commissioned the Naval Supply Depot, Naval Base, San Diego. The original depot building , still in use , consisted of(l new six-story concrete structure on the southeast comer of Broadway and the Embarcadero-now North Harbor Drive. But there was little else. At the time there were only two picrs in downtown San Diego, neither capable of supporting the loading and unloading of naval stores in the quantities envisioned. Accordingly, at the request of the Navy Congress appropriated a nominal sum in 1926 to begin construction of a down­town Navy pier and additional funding in 1927 that resulted in completion of the original Navy Pier in 1929 . More pier space was obtained in 1938, when the Navy leased Broadway Pier from the city . In 1942 thc depot completed its own NSD Pier, making a total of three piers-Navy, Broadway, NSD-available

for NSD use. During the years 1922-] 940 the Navy continued to expand the depot by an

almost continuous building program. For example, in 1939 it completed three one-story, fireproof buildings that afforded 52,500 square feet of additional storage space; and in 1940, another building of 29,400 square feet was completed. But the major acquisition during this time was outside the immediate NSD compound. In late 1940 the Navy began construction on a site in National City , now part of the present Naval Station , of eight buildings of approximately 450,000 square feet gross storage space that became the National City Annex.

During World War II. the depot's original downtown site expanded to include almost all of the property bounded by Broadway, Ash, Pacific Highway , and North Harbor Drive . In addition , the Navy completed a seven-story building covering an entire block south of the original site , formerly occupied by the City Fish Market. and temporarily occupied the City Warehouse and almost an entire city block ncar the Civic Center. This expansion made it possible during the period July 1941 through July 1944 for NSD to outload 320 ships carrying over three million measured tOilS of cargo .

Aflcr World War II the t1epot reduced its ci vilian work force by about half hut l~)I, llllI\lkd again dming. the Korean War and Vietnam conflict. Activity ac­tna lly wa, ) ' I l' jl l ~'r Ilw n tllilll ill Wm ld Wtll \I hCl.:allsc of the vast changes that 11111 1 OW IIII \' oI ill Illll i';1 i,' ~ dcrk:mlt' ll l I " d lllUh I)'

A ' lI h,' (l I1II \ \ 11:I ' ld ,' I II W ", 11 1.11,-11011 ', IIPI'"II I C' I"'II ' ''''IIiI'''', WIIIIIII II,,' 11;1\,:11